2 minutes
To maximize your credit card portfolio, is it better to offer triple points on purchases or cash-back rewards? How best to woo members with high balances on competitors’ cards? Without more information, it’s pretty hard to answer these questions.
But with the help of data analytics, credit unions are increasingly able to segment their audiences and fine-tune their offers, attracting cardholders and increasing transaction volumes/spending in the process.
“When you think about the purpose of data analytics, it’s primarily to gain an understanding of what members value so you can make the most of your marketing investment,” explains Eric Schurr, chief strategy officer with CUES Supplier member TMG Financial Services, Des Moines, Iowa, in “Playing Your Cards Right.”
In other words, sophisticated data analysis helps identify additional high-potential opportunities within your member base.
Because of the specialized skills required, credit unions often outsource data crunching to their credit card processors or other vendors, but data analysts are increasingly finding their way onto credit union org charts as well. $1.2 billion Allegacy Federal Credit Union, Winston-Salem, N.C., is one example.
VP/Marketing Chrystal Parnell, a CUES member, calls the CU’s database marketing and research manager “the No. 1 go-to resource when people have questions about using data to unlock growth opportunities,” not just for credit cards but across the CU.
Learn more about data management roles and what to look for in a potential hire in “Thinker, Tailor, Partner, Spy.”
Data analytics is all about finding opportunities. Similarly, leadership should be about possibilities, according to Alexander B. Horniman, Ph.D., business administration professor and senior fellow at the Olsson Center for Applied Ethics in the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business. A lead presenter for CEO Institute III, Horniman urged participants in the institute’s spring session to avoid thinking in terms of what they don’t have and, instead, think about “what’s possible?”
“Inspire people to think about possibilities instead of limitations,” he said.
Get more leadership inspiration from Horniman and hear more about the Darden experience from a participant on p. 18.
Mary Auestad Arnold
Editor and Publisher
